Summer Heat in Di Geto
The chief rabbi of Poland, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, met with the Polish president Lech Kaczynski this week after the rabbi was attacked with pepper spray by a lunatic screaming “Poland for the Poles” on a street in Warsaw.
This summer, The National Yiddish Book Center will be hosting Screaming the Truth at the World: Emanuel Ringelblum and the Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto. The exhibit showcases high-quality reproductions of fifty artifacts found in the rubble of the Warsaw Ghetto. The artifacts themselves were collected by an underground group of Jewish cultural activists. Between 1939 and 1943, Oyneg Shabbes, as they were called, amassed 3 vessels filled with Jewish Warsaw’s material culture, one of which was never found in the rubble. The Ringelblum Archive itself, as the collection came to be named, is now housed at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, not too far from the spot where Rabbi Shudrich was attacked last week.
It’s a pretty ride, so if you’re in the area (Boston, New York, Hartford), take a trip up to Amherst and check out the exhibit and all the other events going on this summer.
And don’t forget to say hello to Jewschool contributor/2006 Book Center intern Asaf!
This is a fascinating exhibit with an even more fascinating story.
I had no idea about the warsaw archive (look it up) until i saw this show in San Francisco, and i highly, HIGHLY recommend that you go AFTER you read up on Ringelblum and/or attend a lecture. It’s still a neat exhibit if you don’t, but you will not grasp the earth saking importance of these artifacts until you understand how organized and thoughtful Ringelblum and his Shabbat archive society were. The profound intention that they put into this archive is astonishing and inspiring.
One of the curators spoke at the opening here in San Francisco and it was incredibly eye opening and informative.
Or you can go see the real things at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, as I’m hoping to do when I go to Poland this summer for the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival. If you’re gonna be there, don’t forget to say hi to me!
(Honestly, I’d go to the Book Center, but Western Mass, and the book center, are the sites of the worst allergy attacks of my life. I’m gonna take my chances with Poland this summer.)
rokhl,
W Polsce wszyscy chcą być bardziej równi od wszystkich! Sorry for not shouting out to you on my post, haha, and thats a slick festival, David Krakauer playin this year?
– eli